Cal Students have an important victory.

The Cal students have had an important victory. The burglary charges against them have been dropped. These were felony charges and so very serious. As far as I know other charges remain so the pressure must be kept on to drop all charges. If anybody is involved in criminal activities in this situation it is the regents, who protested by the power of the state in the form of the cops have put their hands in the pockets of the families of students and the students themselves and taken money in the form of increased fees. In the meantime they and the rest of their class live in the lap of luxury in spite of having brought the state and the country to a situation of economic collapse. These are the criminals.

The struggle must go on also because the main issue continues to stand. The fees have been increased and remain increased. This has to be reversed. At the very least and in the immediate term the fees must be taken down to their original level. But this is not enough. All young people have the right to a good education. This means that education must be free for all to all levels. This is a very reasonable position. The trillions spent on wars and occupations abroad and on the obscene tax cuts to the rich must be spent instead on education and health care.

For free education for all to all levels.

We have argued here on this blog that students and workers must unite. To more concretely further this idea we are proposing that we organize in all the campuses and beyond if possible a "Unite Students and Worker day." This idea should be developed and a date set. This is particularly appropriate now because yesterday 18 workers, members of the Service International Employees Union were arrested in San Francisco when they were in struggle against cuts. The attacks they are facing are part of the same capitalist offensive we are facing. Let us start our work for our Unite Student and Workers Day by approaching these San Francisco workers and offering our support and proposing the coordination of our struggles.

Drop all charges against all students and workers.

The organizers of this blog are in favor of direct action and disrupting the efforts of the authorities to increase our fees and attack our living standards. Our position is "No more business as usual" for the people and the class that do this. This direct action involves occupations, sit-ins, sit-downs and other tactics. We also argue that these tactics should not isolate the students. That they should not scare off others. This is sometimes possible when the cops are seen to be attacking. This can scare people off and isolate the students even though most people would otherwise support the actual demands we are struggling for.

We therefore propose that when we take these methods of direct action we simultaneously take measures to increase our support, to spread our actions, and most important of all to get out to the wider movement what we are fighting for. This is what we mean. Direct action should not just be seen as a way to disrupt the forces we are fighting but also as a platform to explain to workers and the community in general what we are struggling for.

For example if we occupy or have a sit in or sit down then take some of our forces and through distributing flyers before and during this make sure that our demands are known, that we are struggling for easier access to education for all. Not many working class or middle class people would oppose this. In particular we get our demands known to the workers in the campuses. But not only in the campuses. We must if possible expand out of the campuses. While spreading our struggle into the locals and workers in the campuses, we also have to get to the unions and union rank and file outside the campuses. Now is an important time and opportunity for this. San Francisco workers have been arrested, we should go there with flyers explaining our struggle and discuss the things we are fighting for in common and try to set up a coordinating committee, a joint action committee, to bring together both struggles.

We should also look imaginatively and concretely at other aspects of the struggle. Everybody has to take responsibility for their actions. We should identify the regents and go to their businesses, homes, clubs, churches and through distributing flyers explain what this person has done. The savage person this is. It is like making sure that a community knows that a predator lives in their midst. At number 24 or 68 or whatever, that is where that person lives who increased fees and made it much harder for our families to get a decent education. How many peoples' lives he or she has damaged. Ask the question of this person's fellow church goers, this person's other acquaintances do they want to be associated with such a person. But more important again with flyers explain the vicious actions of these people to the workers where these people gas their automobiles, where they shop, where their cable TV and electricity and gas comes from, and ask all the workers who work in these places to refuse to serve these regent people. In other words organize a boycott against these people. Isolate them from society for their crimes. After all this is the way that somebody like a mugger or somebody who is involved in a violent street crime is dealt with by capitalist society. society. They are isolated from society, only in their case it is in prison. We do not have any prisons with walls and wire and guards, so let us isolate the criminals who are destroying education in the prison of workers and students solidarity.

Sean.